Class Reunion: The Podcast

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Class Reunion: The Podcast A podcast about high school, 20 years later. From Aurora High School Class of 2001 graduate Addie Broyles.

Hello, classmates and friends! It has been a while since I posted on this account, but I am back today to share some exc...
04/03/2022

Hello, classmates and friends! It has been a while since I posted on this account, but I am back today to share some exciting news: “Class Reunion: The Podcast” was featured in today’s Springfield News-Leader! Reporter (and fellow small town Missouri native) took an interest in the show and wrote this AMAZING story about how the podcast all came together and how it culminated in that wonderful in-person reunion last fall. (She even wrote about the bonfire at Kirk’s and ’s observation about how far we’ve all come in our relationships with each other.) And yes, it is my dream to revisit this podcast again, with the hope that I can eventually interview all of our classmates. Thank you so much for your continued support and cheerleading for this show — and our ever-changing community of classmates. Sending much love to you all! ❤️

Check out the story on the website or pick up a copy if you live in the area! Thanks, Greta, for taking such great care with this piece!

It’s ! Did you know that “Class Reunion: The Podcast” has supported nearly a dozen nonprofits and charity groups, thank...
01/12/2021

It’s ! Did you know that “Class Reunion: The Podcast” has supported nearly a dozen nonprofits and charity groups, thanks to sponsors and folks who have signed up on Patreon?

I wanted to make sure that this show did more than look back at the past. I wanted to do what I could to support folks who are shaping the future of the Ozarks and beyond.

All season long, I was writing checks to groups on behalf of the classmates featured on the show. It was a great honor to contribute what I could, and I hope to repeat this initiative in any future seasons of the show.

If YOU want to support these donations, go to Patreon.com/classreunionpodcast to chip in as little as $3 per month. I’ll keep the Patreon open through next August, which will mark a year since the show launched.

(There’s still time to sponsor bonus episodes, which will be rolling out next year!)

Conservation areas like this one on Crane Creek offer free access to some of Missouri’s beautiful wilderness. This one’s...
30/11/2021

Conservation areas like this one on Crane Creek offer free access to some of Missouri’s beautiful wilderness. This one’s called Wire Road, and the trail loops through the woods to the creek, where it was warm enough (barely) for my youngest to dip his toes in the water. We also found a huge oyster mushroom growing on a tree next to the water. I’d never been on this trail, even though Aurora is just a few miles up the road!

Found the roller skating rink! I have not been able to determine when it closed, but I found out recently that it was op...
30/11/2021

Found the roller skating rink! I have not been able to determine when it closed, but I found out recently that it was open as early as the 1930s/40s! (You’ll have to listen for that story in an upcoming bonus episode with a certain booster who is one of the most recognizable people in Aurora today.)

Class of 2001, representing this Friendsgiving! Hope everyone had a great holiday week. I’ll share some fun photos from ...
30/11/2021

Class of 2001, representing this Friendsgiving! Hope everyone had a great holiday week. I’ll share some fun photos from Missouri over the next week here. Bob, who is featured in episode No. 14, lives in Northeast Missouri now, and we got to spend part of the weekend together with his wife and new kiddo.

Is it time for another reunion yet? Debbie, right, was our last classmate episode featured in this season of the podcast...
17/11/2021

Is it time for another reunion yet? Debbie, right, was our last classmate episode featured in this season of the podcast, but maybe I can get Clarissa and Kim lined up for the next? When will that be?? I have no idea, but looking through reunion pics makes me so glad I can call these people friends. Not former classmates, but current buddies that I can exchange random GIFs with on Facebook. Kim and I Facetimed making dinner last month, and it was for sure a highlight of my week. Have you ever been to a reunion and it sparked new friendships? Or maybe even new love? I’d love to hear about it!

Last little gem from First Independent Bank. Jack Muench’s wife painted this scene of Aurora, with the iconic mill on th...
16/11/2021

Last little gem from First Independent Bank. Jack Muench’s wife painted this scene of Aurora, with the iconic mill on the right and the train that brought so many people, goods and growth to this little pocket of Southwest Missouri. It’s the view from Baldwin Park/Old Marionville Road.

At 1,401 ft, it is, indeed, the Summit City of the Ozarks. Springfield comes in at 1,299 ft, and Branson is a whopping 700 ft lower in elevation (774).

I’ve come to realize that this particular spot in Southwest Missouri is exactly where the Midwest ends and the South begins. Just 10 miles south, you’re in the Ozark Mountains, which is really the northernmost part of what most Southerners might call the South. (I just met a woman from Winslow, Arkansas recently who has helped confirmed this theory about the North/South line.)

Aurora flashback, part 2: More photos from the collection at First Independent Bank in Aurora. (Seriously, go check out ...
15/11/2021

Aurora flashback, part 2: More photos from the collection at First Independent Bank in Aurora. (Seriously, go check out these photos if you are in town. They so so beautiful to see in large format prints on the wall.)

These are the men and women who called Aurora home, including one of the town’s founders (Stephen Elliott, right, in that second photo. I think that’s Elliott’s mom in the middle).

One of the photos says: “The boys and girls who make business good at the shoe factory.” I know plenty of these folks still have ties to the town now. It would be amazing to find their relatives and show them these images.

Aurora flashback, part 1: This amazing collection of photos is on display at the First Independent Bank on Elliott Stree...
15/11/2021

Aurora flashback, part 1: This amazing collection of photos is on display at the First Independent Bank on Elliott Street in Aurora, where hometown pride is on display in the form of these stunning images. There are so many, I am going to split them into two posts.

These are what I’ll call the kid photos. Some of these school photos were taken at White Oak School, which was a rural school on the east side of town. That main building in the back of the first photo? That’s the original Aurora High School, and it was still standing in the late 1990s. We called that the A wing, and it full of these big tall classrooms and was *so* old.

They eventually tore it down, but we spent countless hours going up and down those stairs and staring out those huge windows.

The Maple Park Cemetery in Aurora has a small plaza honoring the military veterans from the town, including those who fo...
11/11/2021

The Maple Park Cemetery in Aurora has a small plaza honoring the military veterans from the town, including those who fought in the Civil War.

Missouri is famously the compromise state, winning statehood on 1821 as the only state north of Mason-Dixon Line where it was legal to enslave people. By the time the Civil War started, Missourians enlisted in both the Union and the Confederacy. These bricks make no distinction. Do we?

There are so many underlying questions and even tensions when you start a project like this podcast. How much digging do we do? Where is the line between the personal and the political? What are the universal truths that we agree on? Whose narrative is missing from this cemetery? Whose voices are missing from this podcast?

On Veteran’s Day, my heart feels grateful for veterans who have entered into unthinkable situations to sort out unthinkable crises. To face individual fears for the benefit of the collective. To put aside one’s personal safety to compromise another’s.

Freedom isn’t free, but where is freedom in conscription, enslavement and bloody battles like the one at Wilson’s Creek in nearby Republic? (It’s actually in a town called Battlefield, which is the name of a thoroughfare in Springfield and, with zero irony, the city’s mall.)

These aren’t questions that have concrete answers, but they are ones that come up when we have the courage to enter into this dialogue. Not to engage in battle, though. I didn’t want this show to feel combative in any way, but I know that asking questions like this brings us into an uncomfortable place.

We are living lives that these ancestors couldn’t have imagined. Can we have conversations that are also equally as evolved? That’s the space I’m carving out with this lil show. Thank you to all the veterans out there, both living and dead, who might have shared this desire for unity, equity and, yes, freedom.

By the old Jenkins school, a reminder of how much geography plays a role in small town life. Aurora is surrounded by rur...
11/11/2021

By the old Jenkins school, a reminder of how much geography plays a role in small town life.

Aurora is surrounded by rural areas and even smaller communities whose kids sometimes went to Aurora and sometimes went to Monett or Mt. Vernon or Crane. (When the Jenkins school closed, its students split between Aurora and Cassville.)

The country kids, like my recent guest Bobby, had a different experience than the town kids, but we also all intertwined. None of us felt like city kids, that’s for sure. I remember using a subway in New York for the first time or traveling to Europe and wondering if anyone from my town had ever done that. But had any of them gone to EE bridge? Or swam in the lake at Shell K**b? Or found the waterfall on the Nat, where the Aurora plateau gave way to the hollers of the Ozarks? (Anyone know why that backroad was called the Nat?)

1999 Miss Holly Tiffany is on the “Class Reunion” bucket list! *Every* classmate is on the podcast bucket list, but esp...
11/11/2021

1999 Miss Holly Tiffany is on the “Class Reunion” bucket list! *Every* classmate is on the podcast bucket list, but especially Tiffany, a high school pageant winner, dancer and cheerleader who taught me the joys of drinking pickle juice. (Isn’t it weird the memories we keep in our brains?) Who would you want to hear from in future episodes? Wouldn’t it be interesting to do a class from each decade?

As we approach our last episode of “Class Reunion: The Podcast,” I wanted to share some photos of Aurora and our time th...
11/11/2021

As we approach our last episode of “Class Reunion: The Podcast,” I wanted to share some photos of Aurora and our time there that I haven’t shared yet! Over the next couple of days, you’ll see some familiar and not so familiar faces and places.

This one is one of those familiar sights! It’s the Sunset Drive In, one of the last drive-in theaters in the region. It’s been open since 1950, so can you imagine the memories made here during all those years? I can remember birthday parties and late nights watching 1990s classics including “Bio-Dome” and “Anaconda.” (Every once in a while, I’ll be watching something and have this wave of “Ohhhh, I think I saw this at the drive-in.”)

Definitely snuck in via the trunk at least once.

What do you remember about the drive in?? It’s closed for the season but will reopen in the spring.

This whole podcast has been an awesome experience, and it's been especially worth it for these last two episodes, starti...
09/11/2021

This whole podcast has been an awesome experience, and it's been especially worth it for these last two episodes, starting with this one featuring Bob Johnson, who also interviews me for the second half of the show.

It was the very first call I recorded for what became “Class Reunion: The Podcast.”

Bob (who is dressed as Einstein in that Halloween pic) and I talk about his around-the-world (literal) journey to becoming a farmer in North Missouri, and my newsprint-stained path toward becoming a journalist. I was still working at the newspaper at the time of this chat, and his wife, Tiffany, was a few weeks away from giving birth to their first kiddo.

Giving Bobby the keys to the interview was such a rewarding experience — I can definitely recommend starting a podcast as a way to get to know your friends and spark new ones. (That’s a hint about the finale!)

If you would have asked me 20 years ago if I thought Bobby Johnson would be one of my closest friends, I’d have said you...
04/11/2021

If you would have asked me 20 years ago if I thought Bobby Johnson would be one of my closest friends, I’d have said you were nuts. Bobby was super smart and funny but he also annoyed me with his jokes. We went to the same college and went our separate ways, but somehow ended up in each other’s orbit.

By the time this first photo was taken (on our Mizzou graduation day — we both graduated a semester late), we’d squared our knot and knew we’d be friends forever. A year later, he became Uncle Bobby, and he’s been part of the family ever since.

And if you knew Bobby then, you might not believe what he’s been up to now. (He’s Dr. Bob!)

Today’s new episode of “Class Reunion” features back-to-back chats recorded last winter when I was first starting on this podcast journey. I interviewed him and then he interviewed me, and I decided to keep our chats together because they were so interconnected anyway.

Check out the podcast anywhere you listen. And if you want to support the show, go to patreon.com/classreunionpodcast and sign up!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/class-reunion-the-podcast/id1581354016?i=1000540782344

29/10/2021

Working on the last two episodes of the podcast! This gem from has been living rent free in my mind for a month now. Can’t wait to share the rest of the episode with you soon. ❤️

This week's episode of "Class Reunion" is a fun one! Sara Williams married Caleb Hamilton a few years after we all gradu...
22/10/2021

This week's episode of "Class Reunion" is a fun one! Sara Williams married Caleb Hamilton a few years after we all graduated together from Aurora High School. She's now a basketball mom with two teens and a toddler at home, and in this conversation, she tells the story of when she knew she's marry Caleb, what it's been like to be in a relationship so long and what memories she treasures most from her childhood. (Hint: One of the involves going out on the road with her dad, when he was a trucker.)

Does it get any cuter? 🥰.hamilton.927 and I, at the Aurora pool, circa 1992. We would later go on to win the Big 8 Confe...
21/10/2021

Does it get any cuter? 🥰.hamilton.927 and I, at the Aurora pool, circa 1992. We would later go on to win the Big 8 Conference in volleyball together, which was, let me tell you, a pretty cool thing when you’re in the thick of the season. It’s still a cool thing, but life (and pics like this) does put it all in perspective.

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Working on the last two episodes of the podcast! This gem from @debbielhoward has been living rent free in my mind for a month now. Can’t wait to share the rest of the episode with you soon. ❤️#classreunionpodcast #classreunion #highschool #classof2001 #nostalgia #friendship #heavyweight

The only constant is change. This house and this experiencing of coming “home” is a little different every time, but some parts of this house haven’t changed in 60 years. My mom grew up in this house, and then moved away for a long time. Then she lost her mom and her husband while living in this house. But here she is, very much alive and thriving, to give me a “welcome home” hug. 😅❤️💖#classreunion #classreunionpodcast #auroramissouri #dachshund #swmo #ogmo #secondgeneration #ancestralhealing #welcomehome

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